Negotiating Identity Through Memory: A Study of Transgenerational Memory and Korean Diaspora in Pachinko

Abstract

This paper explores the representation of transgenerational memory and diasporic identity in the Apple TV web series, Pachinko, a work based on Min Jin Lee’s novel, Pachinko. Presented as a haunting element, memory transcends temporal boundaries to allow the past to intermingle the present both socially and politically. With its theoretical foundation in memory studies, the study attempts to find how narrative strategies used in Pachinko aids in the reconstruction and transmission of memory across generations. On close examination of some of the significant narrative strategies used in the work, like non- linear timelines, intergenerational storytelling and multilingual dialogues, the study traces the lineage of inherited trauma. Moreover, the paper reflects the broader cultural struggle of Korean diasporic subjects to secure visibility within Japanese imperial and post-imperial contexts as it engages in breaking out the silences, especially through the voice of an ordinary women like Sunja, who is an embodiment of her own nation’s history. With a close textual analysis, the paper argues that, Pachinko challenges the dominant historical narratives by giving voice to the voiceless, where the story is told from the perspectives of Korean immigrants in Japan and through Solomon’s search for identity in a fragmented diasporic context. By locating memory within diasporic identities, the narrative emphasizes that identity in exile transcends the concept of origin and joins the process of remembering and reconstructing the self.